robr

I'm flying BOS > BLR via LHR in September for business via AA (codeshare on BA). I must do AA as that's the only airline I'm collecting status with and this trip will put me at Platinum.

I've never been to England and I see that best I can manage is an 8hr layover.
I've been googling and it seems neither AA or BA will allow a 1 night layover, so I just wanted to confirm that.

Still a few hours in London is better than no London at all.
Looking at BA212 (arrives 650am) to BA119 (departs 225pm)

obscure2k

Moving thread to AA Forum
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

reeg2

24 hour or less is general rule for a connection. Anything more is a stopover, which is not permitted on a single ticket. There are situations where this rule is not end-all, be-all, but for your situation, it pretty much is...

So unless you want to pay to hang out in the UK, you can only take a legal connection.

JJeffrey

As mentioned above, you have 24 hrs to connect, and due to the timing of the single daily LHR-BLR flight on BA it makes it tough to stretch this out much coming from the east coast.

One option would be to fly BOS-JFK-LHR on the early morning daytime flight, which arrives in LHR around 10pm. Spend the night in London, then continue on the next day's LHR-BLR flight around 2pm. You should be able to get this on a single ticket.

JDiver

We often overnight in London, but only if we stay under 24 hours so it's not a stopover. After 23:59, it's a stopover and incurs the United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty, so your short stopover becomes significantly more expensive with layover and APD costs. (In other locations - on paid tickets - stopovers may be allowed free or at specified cost.)

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-thread.html.

With sufficient time one can visit London (pricey Heathrow Express to Paddington station is very fast, Hesthrow Connect takes longer but costs less and Underground ("the Tube") takes even longer and costs less.

For a few hours trip from Hounslow (Heathrow) is Windsor and Windsor Castle (line 81 bus).

The reason your query was moved to the AA forum is because your question concerns using AA marketed flight, therefore AA policy and conditions govern what can be done with your ticket (not the operating airline, BA). More information about what to do and where to go would be appropriate to the destination forum. /Moderator

AAExpDFW

Best option is like everyone is suggesting,...find a flight that arrives after 14:25 (the Blr departure time). You could take the 8am out of BOS and then you arrive in the evening. You then have until the next day before you leave. Less than 24 hours but requires a hotel night. You will probably have to build the trip "by segment" as they probably wont provide that as a default result if you are building it online.

robr

Thanks for the tips guys, you actually opened my eyes to possibly doing this a couple of times. Maybe BOS > London > Dubai > Bangalore (Via Qatar) and trying to time a long layover in London and Dubai. I didn't even realize you could do this.

robr

I'm thinking it would be great to stop in Dusseldorf to see a concert by my favorite German band on the way back to the US. Looking at the One World Alliance map, would AA allow

BLR>DOHA>VIENNA>DUSSELDORF (Stay for 18 hours)>LONDON>BOSTON

I haven't been able to find any info on maximum # of legs.

Also would they allow multiple long layovers? Ie going out I was thinking BOS>LHR (18 hours) > Dubai (18 hours) > DOTA > BLR

Thanks for helping out the newbie

OskiBear

I almost always do this at LHR and frequently in other cities (Tokyo, as an example).
I'd suggest researching the various flights that arrive LHR on which you could conceivably fly and then compare the outbound times of your connecting flights.

I think I once got very very close to an exact 24 hour connection. It's a great way to see a city without incurring a stopover charge or the UK APD if it's LHR where you are doing this.

A lot of the search engines seem to not output these flights automatically unless it's the much cheaper option. It'll work better once you know your flight options to then force it to output the option you want by doing a multi-city search.

robr

Hi OskiBear, that's the plan but before I spend a lot of time putting all of that together (then finding the AA codeshare flight #), I wanted to make sure the scenarios I mentioned above are allowed. Specifically the double long layover going out and the 5 leg route coming back. I've spent the past hour googling and I'm only finding pages that discuss rules relating to award tickets and Max Permitted Miles which isn't relevant here. I also keep finding stopover rules instead of layover.

I'm trying to get a better handle on the rules so I'm not wasting time on researching itineraries that are not within the rules.

Ldnn1

This isn't correct at all for revenue tickets. (OP must've been talking about revenue as he mentioned codeshares and also earning status from the trip.)

Lots and lots fares - often even the very cheapest - allow stopovers on a single ticket. Some may be free, others may incur a surcharge.

For example the cheapest O economy class fare on AA for BOS-BLR in September allows the following:

While a mid-range I business class fare on AA allows the following (there are cheaper I fares which allow stopovers on BA/IB stock but not on AA):

So to be clear, it's definitely possible to do stopovers on a single ticket.

As mentioned by others this will incur APD, however.

Ldnn1

You're getting into quite complicated routings which may require expensive fares.

Note that normal fares don't allow you simply to fly on any oneworld airline on whatever routing you want; each fare has its own routing rules.

Can you clarify what class you want - business? And what is your budget?

robr

Darn, that's not good news . But that's why I'm posting.... from reading all these websites, it sounded like I could build my own and keep costs about the same.

My boss rejected business class (though policy allows it) because it was too expensive ($4K). My budget is around $1600 round trip from BOS > BLR. Our corporate rates seem to be about 10% lower than Expedia for the same itinerary. My domestic travel is always Y class fares if that's helpful.

robr

Here's another question. Are all flights on a Oneworld partner valid for AA travel? For example, I was looking at BA105 from LHR>DXB. This is not listed as an AA codeshare flight. So is that an invalid flight for an AA booking?

JJeffrey

Each carrier will have different fares and fare rules for any given city pair. As mentioned above, you can't just mix and match and expect it to price out normally.

The AA/BA fare for BOS-BLR could be $1000 for example, and probably allows BA or AA travel to London, 24 hrs to connect, then requires the LHR-BLR flight.

The Qatar fare might be $2000, and require you to take the BOS-DOH-BLR routing or possibly connect somewhere in Europe, i.e. BOS-LHR-DOH-BLR. It will probably price ok as long as you follow those guidelines and keep the connections under 24 hrs.

And you will generally earn AA miles on oneworld flights, although the earning rates can be greatly reduced depending on which carrier and fare class. Some fare classes on certain carriers do not earn any miles at all. Since you're expecting these miles to help qualify for PLT, I would implore you to check out the "Earn Miles" section under AAdvantage at aa.com before you book.